Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza is one of the few remaining hubs for medical services in the area. Since Israel’s war in Gaza began, it has also been a site of conflict itself. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using the hospital as a base, which Gaza officials have denied, and has raided it repeatedly since Oct. 7, 2023. Parts of the facility have been damaged and destroyed from both direct attacks and bombardments occurring nearby. In late October, most of the staff members were detained or expelled by Israel’s military. Few doctors and nurses remain, and they care for sometimes upward of 100 patients.
One of those doctors is the hospital’s current director, Hussam Abu Safyia, a pediatrician who is also the lead physician in Gaza for the humanitarian organization MedGlobal. In October 2023, he wrote a guest essay for Opinion describing the dire situation he was witnessing as casualties mounted during the first month of Israel’s offensive. Since then, the situation at the hospital has become much worse. Dr. Abu Safyia, who isn’t a surgeon, has had to operate on patients because of the lack of trained surgeons. He has had to decide who gets treatment and who doesn’t, given the dwindling resources available. And he has had to navigate a tense situation with the surrounding Israeli forces. He has had to do all this while grieving his son, who was killed in late October of this year and is buried on the hospital’s grounds. Last month, MedGlobal reported, Dr. Abu Safyia was wounded by shrapnel resulting from an Israeli airstrike and required surgery.
For a week in October and November, Dr. Abu Safyia sent Times Opinion audio and video messages describing the day-to-day situation at the hospital and the difficulties he and his remaining staff face. Here are edited excerpts, most of them translated from the Arabic.
Oct. 30
Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I walked into the operating room to perform surgery, on the stomach of a 4-year-old child whose house was destroyed by bombing. He was bleeding a lot from his stomach, but I somehow managed to perform the operation and thank God I was able to save that child’s life.
We are working beyond our areas of specialization because we no longer have a qualified surgical team. We have called upon the world for protection for over 50 days but unfortunately there has been no response. I’m confounded by this world that claims to believe in humanity and democracy but does not respond. Not even the World Health Organization has any protection here.
The human mind cannot imagine all the death and body parts and blood that surround us around the clock. But it remains our responsibility to keep on providing humanitarian services.
Oct. 31
The situation is very, very catastrophic. Today the hospital was struck. This attack caused damage to the third floor and a storeroom for goods and medical supplies. It destroyed water tanks and oxygen containers designated for the dialysis unit. The engineering and maintenance section was also damaged, which has led to a paralysis of our health services. Four members of the medical staff were wounded as they tried to put out the fire, unprotected and without adequate materials to extinguish the flames. Sadly, they suffered burns of varying degrees.
I still have approximately 85 patients, 19 of whom are children, including two newborns. We are now in a phase of simply trying to save as many lives as possible. We watch the wounded die one after another because of the lack of adequately trained medical staff.
Nov. 1
These are very difficult days we’re going through right now. The siege is still total over the entirety of the northern Gaza Strip. Barely any medical supplies or medical relief teams are allowed to enter. There are dozens of patients here still awaiting operations, including bone surgery, general adult and children’s surgery and burn reconstruction surgery.
We are no longer able to prioritize incoming cases that might require immediate medical attention over others that are arriving around the clock because of the Israeli assaults and bombings in the area. Most of the wounded who actually make it here come on foot. Some, by the time they arrive, have nearly bled out and are in extremely serious condition.
Once again, we are asking the whole world and the international community to provide real protection for this health care system. There must be a safe humanitarian corridor that is appropriate for the health care system and that would allow in medical relief teams and medical necessities.
Nov. 3
Throughout the night, there have been continuous bombardments and bombings of buildings around the hospital. The explosions have caused significant damage, even affecting the hospital itself. Most of the doors have been blown out, and many of the windows are shattered. This has instilled a sense of terror and fear among the patients.
We have not received any medical personnel, and upon following up on this matter, we learned that specialized medical staff weren’t allowed to enter northern Gaza.
We currently have 120 patients. Today we received six boxes of medical supplies that we did not request. And the food we just received is seven boxes of canned food that will last the hospital one day.
This is the scene inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, where patients and children are running in the midst of bombardment of the hospital and the water tanks. Can we imagine seeing this scene at Boston Children’s Hospital or Great Ormond Street Hospital in London or Children’s National Hospital in Washington?
Nov. 4
It is the 29th day of the siege on the northern Gaza Strip. The hospital was attacked yesterday at the same time that the World Health Organization was here to evacuate some patients who would not have been able to leave otherwise. People sought shelter by hiding wherever they could. We still have not received any explanation regarding what happened or why it happened. This deplorable attack resulted in a number of injuries to patients, including women.
Just a little while ago we were in the operating room. There was a 13-year-old girl who was already wounded with shrapnel in the abdomen. During this latest attack, she was injured again — a very serious injury to the stomach. She just had an operation and God willing her condition will stabilize in the coming hours.
Droves of people continue to show up at the emergency room. Those who are able to get here might receive medical care, but those who are not able to get here find their fate elsewhere. There are still people buried under the rubble. There are no tools to remove the rubble in order to find whoever is underneath. One finds it difficult to describe what we’re living through, to be honest.
Nov. 6
We are still besieged inside the hospital. The hospital was struck for three straight days. The attacks were frightening. The storage rooms and the pharmacy were destroyed.
Sadly, this was a ferocious attack that resulted in many injured, including children who were under sedation because they were undergoing surgery at the time. A number of medical workers who had been providing care in the emergency room were wounded.
We feel as if the rest of the world is wrapped up in a different world than the one we are in. We are suffering and paying the price of the genocide that is happening to our people here in the northern Gaza Strip.
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